Firefly 2013 ventures into Day 2

Firefly 2013 has kicked off the second day of its weekend-long festival at Dover International Speedway's Woodlands.

By Sarah Lakesarah.lake@doverpost.com@sussex_sarah

Firefly 2013 has kicked off the second day of its weekend-long festival at Dover International Speedway's Woodlands.

"It's a beautiful, blue sky day, and the festival is up and running," said Firefly Director Greg Bostrom. "We're looking forward to an exciting Day 2, with more of the same of what you saw yesterday."

One thing festival goers and local residents will not see from yesterday is traffic jams, Bostrom said.

"I think a lot of our fans saw that inbound traffic was more than they saw the previous year, but we are in close coordination with the Delaware Department of Transportation and other federal and state agencies," Bostrom said. "We feel like we came to some great conclusions towards the end of the day and we certainly learned some things from last year. We sincerely apologize for any delays. We're hoping traffic issues will soon be forgotten once everyone is rocking out with 60,000 of their closest friends."

Jim Westoff, a spokesman for DelDOT, said Dover has not seen any significant traffic issues so far today.

"Traffic has been slowing steadily," Westoff said. "The worst of the traffic is behind us and now we can enjoy the music and enjoy the weekend."

"Any time with these large scale events and so many people trying to get to the same towers, [you'll see problems]," Bostrom said. "We did take proactive measures this year, with 100-foot cell towers. Certainly we understand there were probably some connectivity issues. We're doing everything we can to coordinate with cellular providers."

Regarding emergency response, Bostrom said the first day of Firefly did not see instances beyond standard dehydration and "people having a little too much to drink. Some people had a few too many beverages, but we have an incredible safety team on site and we were able to get to them and those issues quickly and efficiently to the point where I think we did everything we could to help people who were feeling a little under the weather."

So far, Bostrom said, there have been no arrests associated with unruly behavior have been made that he is aware of.

"At 60,000 people, there's always going to be a few one-off situations," he said. "It was definitely nothing more than what was expected. It was dealt with quickly and efficiently by security."

Day 2 will see slightly higher temperatures and more humidity than Day 1. According to www.accuweather.com, temperatures in Dover will hit 82 degrees throughout the day, and drop to 67 degrees tonight. Tomorrow will be even more hot and humid, with temperatures expected to hit 86 degrees.

Today's headliner is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, expected to hit the Main Stage at 10:10 p.m. Before then, the festival will host several big names, including Kendrick Lamar at 4 p.m. on The Lawn stage, the Alabama Shakes at 5 p.m. on the Main Stage, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at 7:15 p.m. on the Main Stage, and MGMT at 8:45 p.m. on The Lawn stage.

Festival goers are so far raving about this year's event.

Emily Rogers of Long Island, NY said it's really fun, and it's also really hot.

"Last night was incredible," Rogers said. "The Red Hot Chili Peppers were ridiculous. It was a great show."

Kimberly Berg, also of Long Island, NY, said she love's the "Firefly" theme.

"I love the camping in the woods, the lights, and the umbrellas in the trees for shade," Berg said. "This is my first music festival and I'm having an incredible time."